(applause). . (applause). . . >> thank you guys so much for that beautiful performance can we give them another round of applause?

(applause). all the this time if i can ask mr. joaquin torrez to join us again on stage, joaquin will be introducing the mayor and if i can ask my fellow committee members to also join us on stage. joaquin. >> thank you very much i have to say as director the mayor's oches of neighborhood services it's refreshing to have a mayor so dedicated to couldn't and it makes my job easier when our people in the community want to feel our elected efficients make our needs and it's in physical presence and i have had the great pleasure of serving under our mayor lee who i would like to make a invite to make a few remarks in honor or

of arab heritage month here in san francisco. >> thank you, thank you joaquin, thank you, welcome to our orange city hall. i want to welcome everybody here this fourthth animal america arab month of separation and it's my pleasure to join us here and many of us know that we are such a lucky city, and we are lucky because people around their world make their way to fraction, find hopey until the city they know that we celebrate our diversity and find strength in the different cultures that pretend together and now, i ask you also to bring me talent from the arab america communities to make me and help me lune run the city. yes, it's incredible. union, i think i can talk about how wonderful diversity is, but we have to get the

talent from our communities to represent all of the different thing that we do in the city. and you know, tonight, even though there is something called a baseball game out there, but these wonderful events that we have in the city whether it's america's cup whether it's fleet week, whether it's the 49ers playing or the giants playing, even eventually when we land the superbowl it all board of trustees all of us, i know that what i'm doing as a mayor and making sure that i support smallbitions in the city is helpful to the america arab community because all of us whether we are chinese americas hal teen know arabs is a starts for us to make our life a little more pleasant and own our business and is make sure that our kids get the best education possible and this is a story about immigrants in our great city. and so why not you have

the first chinese mayor inviting immigrant community to really identify the talent in our community and allow me to give them appointments in the various moo commission and the city and i want to announce my newest point to the aging commission because per not getting younger i want you to know doctor sham meret tan knee has been selected to be on our commission on aging and yes, he is going to help us because there is a lot of you that want to be in our city and you want to make sure that healthy nutritional unusuallile programs and housing are constructing wisely and so i have asked him to step forward and i have asked john paul s ema h a who has been on our treasure island and watch what he is going to do because that is a new part of our city and it's one where

if he conducts all of the work that he is going to do as a commissioner on treasure island, he is go to get a lot more treasure island to serve the that you saws of small residents that are a part of it and so we are seeking more fault and please step forward and represent our communities proudly and i'm very willing to work with all of you and on behalf of our city and on behalf of this wonderful celebration that we have, i call upon on our coaches for the arab heritage celebration, jeff who's here as well as l u b n a to please come on up and receive and just again, thank you very much for your work in the film festival and l u b n a for the wonderful leader ship that you have and devise that you are giving to he to run a vibrant culture center and i hopey that you are able to get a larger cultural center is because the

population is going and i hopey that we are able to get you a larger cultural center and get you the resources that you need to run the cultural and art programs and so on behalf of the city l u b n a and jeff this is our arab heritage month celebration proclimation. (applause). and go giants: enjoy everybody.. >> thank you mr. mayor. (applause). . >> yeah, mayorly thank you very much for the letting us use your

house here tonight and letting -- we really appreciate it we know that you ran from the game to get here and so we really appreciate your commitment to our community and we are happy that you are here to celebrate this momentous day with us. we have an awesome community here, we are here to celebrate the awesomeness of our community the dedication of our community and, you know we are hebe here to serve all of you so really this award should go to everybody here in our community. thank you very much. (applause). and i just want to echo jeff's words and say thank you for having us here today and thank you all for joining us and we look forward to many more arab heritage month celebrations and as well as our bigger community center and you know, through all of the different work that we do in different arab organization, different community organizationings it's about strengthening our community and

contributing to the amazing cultural land scam of our city and we are very thankful to here today. >> and thank you shad deand the committee for putting on such a great show and where joaquin. thank you very much also for all of your dedication and work. okay thanks a lot:. >> so please everyone, join us for the reception, for the following if he is activities we have a fashion show, as well as some food and accommodations and so please follow us into the hall. thank you. ♪ ♪

>> hello and welcome to me your district supervisor. we're here with supervisors got scott wiener. he started his first term this january. we are going to get to know him and talk about the issues facing the city. welcome. thank you for joining us today. tell us about your background, where you grew up, went to school, and what kind of jobs to have had. >> i grew up in the philadelphia area, in new jersey. i went to school up and down the east coast. i went to undergrad at duke university. i went to law school at harvard.

after clerking for a judge, i came out here in 1997. i have been here for the last 14 years. i have always lived in the castro. i am an attorney. i started out in private practice. i settle private law firm during complex commercial litigation. in 2002, and moved over to the sentences the city attorney's office where i worked on the trial team doing trials for the city, handling my own cases, and supervising a team of attorneys as well. >> why did you choose to live in san francisco? >> i always assumed i would go back to the philadelphia area since that is where my family is. i was always interested in san francisco in terms of what it is as a city, its culture, it's amazing lgbt community. i came out here for a summer, fell in love with it.

i have been interested in politics since i was a kid. i worked on campaigns as a teenager. i was involved campaign against senator jesse helms when i was in college. when i cannot hear, and was not initially involved politically. -- when i came out here, i was not initially involved politically. i helped to build the lgbt community center. i started doing campaigns. i gradually got involved in democratic party politics. i got involved in the alice b. toklas democratic club. i ran for the democratic central committee in 2004. i ended up sharing the committee. it was a gradual process for me. by the time i started thinking about running for supervisor, it made sense because of my involvement in the community and in politics. >> what did you learn from campaigning for supervisor?

>> i learned a lot. i knocked on about $15,000. -- i knocked about 15,000 doors. i met a huge number of people. that is the best way to learn about the neighborhood, the city, and what people want and what their concerns are. i feel i can do so much more than before and started campaigning. -- i feel like i know so much more than before i started campaigning. we're all part of the left on the national standard. i am a good liberal democrat. in the san francisco spectrum, and probably considered more middle of the road. -- i am probably considered more middle-of-the-road. i am very independently comes to the issues. i do not vote the party line. a judge each issue on its merits. that is how i am. >> what do you feel are some of the biggest issues facing san

francisco now? >> the budget is the most imminent issue. we do have a structural budget deficit in the city. we need to deal with the short- term balancing of the budget in a way that does not decimate basic city services that people rely on but also to address our long term structural budget deficit. that means implementing budget reforms that will smooth out the budget process so that it is not a boom-bust process. that means reforming our pension and retiree system so that they are stable and do not drain the general fund. that is a big aspect of it. another huge issue is the deferred maintenance on our infrastructure. we have a lot of infrastructure that has been deteriorating because we have not maintained properly. that includes roads, sewer systems, muni.

we need to be much more diligent about maintaining our infrastructure. some of the big citywide issues that impact the district include transportation. we had more muni service and some other districts. it is not always reliable. some of the major bus lines in the district are not reliable. we have major projects like the renovation of delores park. it is an opportunity to define what the park is and what changes we want to make to it. that is going to be and port project, the same thing with glen canyon that is going to undergo a lot of work. one of the most challenging parts of the new district supervisor is that we elect the supervisors by district. it is very important to pay attention to the district, be

engaged in the projects in the district. we also represent the whole city. any district supervisor that focuses on the district without addressing the citywide issues is not doing his or her job. every day, i make sure i am working on the major citywide issues and the district issues. i try to be disciplined about that. >> how will you approach the tough choices? >> i think we have to start by looking at the most critical city services that we cannot do without. what are the ones that if they deteriorated, we will pay the price on? public safety falls into that category as a basic critical service.

transportation, making sure we have the functional muni is critical. core public health services like dealing with mental on this on our streets -- with mental illness on our streets. if we do not provide services, we will pay the price. it works out from there in terms of budget priorities. >> with your plans on dealing with homelessness? >> it is homelessness in general and behavior on the streets. we need to make sure people have access to services. i was a supporter of putting the money we taking the money we're putting into the system to provide housing. we need to make sure people have access to services. we need to make sure that we have standards of behavior on our streets. most homeless people did not cause any problems on our streets. they are a small group the

causing problems. we need to make sure we have the standards of behavior. there are some kinds of behavior that are not ok and they need to report that. . she mentioned housing needs. what are the housing needs? how should the board of supervisors address these? >> there are a few different areas we need to address. housing affordability or lack there of is a major challenge for the city. it is harder to afford housing in the city if you are lower or middle income. we need to address that. i want to focus on work force housing. we do a good job of generating high in housing. we can always do better. we do a decent job providing low-income housing. we do a terrible job providing

housing for lower middle class and middle-class people, people who are working and paying taxes. we need to have them here for a functioning economy. i am looking for ways to fund more of that kind of housing, particularly for a central employees like teachers, nurses, first responders. we need to make sure that our development is a transit- oriented. we do not want to encourage suburban sprawl. we want to do infill housing so that people can live near where they work and near public transportation. >> let's talk about public transportation. is there adequate muni service in your district? what is the parking and traffic situation like? >> muni is not near where it needs to be. in the caster, we have the subway. -- in the castro, we have the subway. a can be terrific or

frustrating. we are next to the bart line. in other parts of the district, is unreliable. the writeridership is lower bece of unreliability. other lines are not as frequent and people not think of using them. we have a particular problem in diamond heights. the neighborhood is served primarily by the 52 line. it is incredibly unreliable. the buses miss runs-------. for awhile, muni was ending service at 9:00 or 10:00 at night. it is up on a hill. without service, it is isolated.

another thing i am working on is trying to get more taxis onto the street. a world-class taxi system is a complement to any public transportation system. >> how do you think the police department is doing? do you have any thoughts on how the city is dealing with crime? >> i was a big supporter of chief gaston. i think he will do a great job in the district attorney's office. part of me was sad to see him go from the police department. he had come in and started modernizing the department. it's technology -- a lot of different changes that needed to happen but were not happening until he came in and start of the department on the right path. it is critical that whoever the next chief of police is continue that modernization of the department.

it will have benefits citywide. in my district, we have public safety challenges. the district is often viewed as a "safe district." we do have violence. we had a bunch of violence around delores park last year. there have been robberies in glen park and parts of the valley. there have been shootings in diamond heights. one of the challenges is making sure that the police department understands that even though we may not have the same crime levels as some neighborhoods, we still need attention from the police department. >> let's talk about the city's economic development. are we on the right track? what would you like to change about the approach to developing the economy? >> we are getting better. the city as got more proactive

about attracting businesses and new industries and providing incentives for them to come and stay here. it is still a very expensive place to do business in terms of the cost of labor, land. we need to make sure that we are not taxing businesses to the point that it is not profitable and we are not attractive for them to be here. we need to reform our payroll tax. that is an incentive not to create jobs. i know the board president david chu is working on possibility this there -- possibilities there. i look forward to working with him. we've targeted efforts to revitalize areas and bring industries here with the tax holiday and proposal introduced yesterday relating to parts of

the tenderloin to provide some payroll tax relief to encourage businesses like twitter and others to go there. >> the governor has proposed eliminating funding for redevelopment agencies. what is your opinion of the plan? what are your thoughts on the value of redevelopment agencies? >> i think the plan is over- broad. i do not support it as it relates to san francisco's model of redevelopment. our redevelopment agency does tremendous work in san francisco. a lot of projects like treasure island and what is happening in hunters point, those kinds of projects would be difficult to achieve without redevelopment. a redevelopment agency is the largest source of affordable housing creation in the city. it has been a huge asset.

i understand there are other parts of the state where redevelopment has a different model and is not as positive. there are types of unwise development. redevelopment statewide is in need of reform. san francisco is a model for redevelopment and it needs to stay intact. >> let's talk about the role of sports. are you happy with the plans for the america's cup? should the city spend money to keep the 49ers'? >> i am thrilled about the america's cup. it will not just be an economic boom that creates jobs and long- term economic development. it will help us shore up our aging and deterioration appears -- deteriorateing piers. it will help us clear of deferred maintenance. it will be a promotion for

the city. people will see the panoramic views of san francisco and want to come here. i would very much like to see forty-niners stay here. what that means, we will have to talk about it. i am not a big fan of massive public subsidies to sports teams. i think we should work hard to keep them here. >> we're almost out of time. are there any other issues or concerns we have not discussed? are there any other specific issues you plan to concentrate on throughout your turn? >> a couple that come to mind. i introduced in control legislation to make it easier for tenants displaced by fires or earthquakes or other disasters to find below market replacement meant -- rent